Sunday, 17 March 2013

Live Review: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band

I’ve never been one for the big spectacle. You know, the big
show, the lights, the clichés and the lack of intimacy. I’m more about the
modest settings. Still, there’s a first time for everything, or so potential
would have it. And before you ask; no, I don’t include Radiohead in that company.

Bruce Springsteen is an interesting proposition. There are
not too many artists who were seemingly dead and buried as Bruce supposedly was
during the ‘90s. In any case, the ‘90s seemed like a point he needed to reach
before he could get to where he is today, namely back with yet another
incarnation of the revered E Street Band.

As we embark upon our seats – situated to right hand side of
the stage in the nosebleeds – it becomes clear that Bruce isn’t so crazy about
the ‘spectacle’ after all. Again, the lights, the clichés and the lack of
intimacy along with all the fancy stage props that would take a fleet of trucks
night and day to load and travel up and down the coast line. There’s none of
that rubbish. The stage could be described as bare bones even, or as bare bones
gets for a 17 piece band.

As the lights go out a massive hubbub erupts, probably the
loudest I’ve ever heard from a crowd that is the most demographically
widespread I’ve ever been a part of. Bruce hasn’t even hit the stage and yet
mundane pinnacles are met.

Bruce and the band enter and break into Wrecking Ball opener, ‘We Take Care of Our Own’. The sound is inch
perfect. There’s no sign of Bruce or his band acknowledging the sound techs to
adjust volume. In fact this doesn’t happen once throughout the show (they’re
obviously paid well and have been with the Boss for years).

He then breaks into a Saints cover, ‘Just Like Fire Wood’
which is yet another added to the long line of covers he and the E Street Band
have delivered over the years. Following this is Wrecking Ball’s title track, perhaps the highlight on the album,
with its anthemic chorus containing the slashing power chords, tonight
provided by Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, whom is assuming the role in
place of Stevie Van Zandt, who is off playing mobster in Norway, filming the
second season of Lilyhammer.

There were many eyebrows raised when it was announced that
Morello would stand in. More power chords and less wah-wah doesn’t seem like
Morrello’s gig, however he shines even producing backup vocals, and brilliantly
too, to ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’; almost his surrogate child, as it becomes
clear that it was Tom’s decision to include it on RATM’s Renegades cover album back in 2000.

Highlights still fill the memory whilst writing this.
Without running through the whole set list (believe me I could), ‘Spirit in the
Night’ and ‘The E Street Shuffle’ is a one two punch of soul rock, obviously bulked
up since their respective births in the early ‘70s. Jake Clemons (nephew of the
late Clarence Clemons) shines as much as Morello, leading the brass section
with his unremitting skronk-a-thon. Preceding these two tracks was The River’s ‘Human Heart’ which led
Bruce to join his fans at the front in crowd surfing from the back of the
general admission all the way back to stage. Yet gain, it’s another first; a 63
year old crowd surfing. I don’t even think Iggy Pop has done in his '60s, although I’m happy to be proven wrong.

‘Johnny 99’ is one of Springsteen’s most opaque tracks even
written, in my opinion. Even on Nebraska
is seems an odd fit. On record it’s a stark folk number, however live, it’s
transformed into this rainbow coalition of sound led by brass and soul, the
whole band at the front of the stage as one doing their thing.

During the night each E Streeter has his/her own moment of
glory. Sooz Tyrell, earlier in the night, with ‘We Take Care of Our Own’. Garry
Tallent - Mr. Consistent - providing tempo in conjunction with Max Weinberg. Roy
Bittan’s moment is definitely ‘Thunder Road’, as Bruce unleashes his tirade of narrative
intertwined with Bittan’s melodic piano fills which are prominent throughout Born to Run.

The encore is filled with Sringsteen's hits. Preceding another Wrecking Ball
number in ‘We Are Alive’, ‘Born to Run’ is phenomenal, packed with the panache
of Nils Lofgren and Morello’s guitars, while Clemons once again displays a
confidence on saxophone which appears to be beyond his years.

‘Dancing In the Dark’ is met with the biggest cheer of the
night (the 90 year old man sat in front of me is up as quick as Jack Flash,
bless him!) while ‘Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out’ is a welcome surprise that closes
the night with Bruce once again getting friendly with his audience.

It’s one of those gigs that no matter where you are in the
audience, no matter what is played, it astounds. Simply put, it’s the most
democratic show I’ve witnessed. Bruce Springsteen, although maligned in some
quarters, is as close to a lovable ‘rock star’ as you’re going to get these
days. No ego, he is who he is. His ideals are sincere and whether you cast him
off as a nostalgic pin-up boy for baby boomers or a limousine liberal is pretty much irrelevant to
the essence of the man himself. The ideals Springsteen presents will perpetuate
throughout generations. He’s about the music and that's what matters.

It’s fair to say that Bruce Springsteen wouldn’t be where he
is today without the wonderful E Street Band. In turn, they wouldn’t be where
they are without him. Springsteen needed to do his own thing in the ‘90s. It’s
almost as if he had the realisation of “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s
gone.” We wouldn’t see the Bruce Springsteen of today in the same light otherwise.

As a unit, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band is the
tightest band I think I’ve ever seen. Bruce seemingly orchestrates every note. It’s
a proper ‘show’. It’s something special and I feel privileged to have witnessed
such a thing. I’m still not sure whether you could call it a spectacle.
That’s what makes it so damn good.